Five Masks Filled with Poison
by Moorey
Summary: AU. 'Five of you are traitors. Killers. But... Let's play a game.' Trapped in a mansion, slowly people are killed off one by one by five unknown people. It's a race to discover the killers or be killed yourself. [NaNoWriMo 2014]
1. Episode 0

**EPISODE 0**

"'Help me…Help me!' Screamed the child as she was brutally murdered. That was all of them. All of the children were dead. But rumor has it that the spirits of the children still haunt the mansion they were murdered in."

"If you're going to at least try to scare me, tell a better story." Arthur sighed.

Alfred huffed, "It's not like you could tell a better a story!"

Arthur rolled his eyes in a cynical manner. Before he spoke again, Francis cut in. "D-Did this really happen…?" he questioned, shifting uncomfortably in the couch next to Michelle, whose face was edgy.

"Of course it didn't! You don't really believe such a far-fetched story, do you?"

"Wow, it's funny how the person who always talks about this kind of stuff doesn't believe me!"

"Alright then, what happened to the serial killers in your story?"

Arthur and Alfred began to bicker over the Halloween story that was told by Alfred in the first place. "Um… What do you think Matthew?" Michelle asked Matthew, who was staying silent this whole time.

"Oh, Al tells stories like this all the time," Matthew answered, "It's another story he made up."

"Whatever! You guys don't have the Halloween spirit! I mean seriously, even at Gilbert's party tonight we're not even allowed to dress up!" Alfred pouted to himself, glancing away. Halloween was in twenty days.

For a moment Arthur's face was confused, "Isn't this _Antonio's _party?"

"Does it really matter? Maybe they're hosting the party together?" Matthew offered an idea.

"Matthew is probably right." Arthur stated, crossing his arms.

'_How come they didn't tell me?' _Francis asked himself, flummoxed.

Michelle noticed the time, commenting they were already late. The group of five headed out from Alfred's house in a hurry. They were heading to a mansion that was booked just for this party. The mansion was well decorated; skulls were hung across the roof, and there were various other Halloween props around the house. Fake blood splatters were also there, though Matthew wondered how all of that was going to be cleaned up. "Sorry we're late!" Alfred announced as they quickly came in.

"I don't understand why someone would come to their _own party _late." Ivan commented. Natalia mumbled a 'not surprised' under her breath.

"…I remember our invitation saying this is Katyusha's party." Lili spoke up.

Ivan shook his head, almost appearing baffled for a moment. "Katyusha couldn't be here tonight due to something coming up."

There was an ephemeral silence until everyone noticed they were all invited by different people, whether they were present at this party or not. Was this even a Halloween party anymore?

"Is this supposed to be some sort of joke?" Yao questioned. Obviously something felt skeptical about this matter. "I think we should leave." He then took the lead by heading back to door. Yao placed his hand on the knob, and then turned it.

_Click._

The door didn't open. It was like their exit out was merely a painting glued to the wall. "W-What?" Yao said to himself in a surprised manner. He attempted to open the windows, only to have the same thing happen like the door. The fact that they were trapped clicked in Yao's mind as fast as light.

"Aiyah!" Yao shouted in complete panic. His outburst caused everyone to stare at him. "We're trapped!"

Quickly everyone flooded around the door and windows, seeing if what Yao had spoken was correct. "It's true…" Kiku quietly expressed.

"What the hell?" Vash said in surprise.

From there everyone at the party began to panic. Mixed voices filled throughout the room. Ludwig tried not to also seem disrupted as he tried to calm down Feliciano by explaining how everything would be solved soon.

"Y-You guys are so stupid!" Lovino spoke up, "We can call for help!" After saying that he dialed for emergency services on his phone. Only after one ring the phone had cut off. There was no service. "W-What?"

Immediately after Lovino's failed attempt, Elizabeta tried calling. "Something could be wrong with his phone." Once again there was no service. Others tried calling, but the aftermath was the same.

"T-There's bound to be other exits or doors somewhere! Maybe we should split up and search!" Mei suggested before everyone could panic again. There were quite the number of people at the party, and she thought splitting up in groups would be best.

The party had a total attendance of twenty. Those were Ludwig, Feliciano, Lovino, Gilbert, Kiku, Yao, Mei, Leon, Arthur, Francis, Alfred, Ivan, Natalia, Elizabeta, Roderich, Lili, Vash, Matthew, Michelle, and Antonio.

Alfred nodded. "We should come back here in twenty minutes and tell what we found!"

Ludwig also nodded. "And make sure you stick together!" It wouldn't be good to get separated. What if you found yourself lost or ran into someone or thing suspicious?

From there everyone broke into different groups to explore. Michelle and Francis went off on their own. The two went down a hall that lead to a wide screen-door. "Francis!" Michelle happily cheered, sliding open the door and running out. A brick sidewalk led out from the door, straight to a garden and a pond filled with lily pads. There was also a gazebo with a few tables. Something that stood out was a plain shed that sat from a distance from everything else. Surrounding everything from behind was a forest.

"Wow," Francis almost whispered in awe, "do you think there could be a way out from that forest?"

"I hope so…"

"Kiku better stay safe!" Yao sighed as he walked with Mei and Leon. "He should have come with us!"

"Stop worrying so much." Leon mumbled. They should be looking for an exit of some sort or _something. _Kiku would be fine with being accompanied with Ludwig and Feliciano.

"Is this the kitchen?" Mei spoke up. She was positive where they were at was. The room looked like any ordinary kitchen. There was a fridge, dining table, counters, cabinets, a sink, and even a dishwasher. Leon began to search through the cabinets.

"What are you doing?" Yao questioned.

"What does it like, look like I'm doing?" Leon responded. He pulled out some canned corn and began observing it. He looked at the expiration date on the bottom. Afterwards the younger teen put the can back and began to go through other foods in the cabinet. "Hm, all of food is fresh."

"Really?" Mei replied, surprised. This prompted her to check the fridge. There was also food in there, which was all seemingly fresh.

Yao even checked the sink, which had fresh running water. If this were a normal party like it was supposed to be, food and drinks would have been brought by whoever the host would have been. But the question is, who put all of this food in here and how is the tap water fresh?

"Ah, what a coincidence, Roderich!" Elizabeta commented, ignoring the bored huff from Gilbert. Instead of finding a way out, they found a music room. There were shelves filled with instrument cases (which most likely also had an instrument in them), and a closet in the back of the room. There also was a piano sitting on its own. Roderich pressed some keys on the piano, and every note sounded in tune.

"How strange." Roderich said to himself.

Gilbert went through the closet, throwing back music folders and other things. "Hey, stop it!" Elizabeta called at him. Before they started to quarrel, Elizabeta stopped herself. "We need to find a way out!"

Feliciano motioned for the other two to follow. Him, Ludwig, and Kiku just came up from the basement. Nothing of importance was really down there. (Oddly) there was a TV and a couch and also things to work out with.

"Now what, Feliciano?" Ludwig asked, turning to him.

"That wasn't there before!" Feliciano explained, pointing back to the basement. There was now a bright light coming from it.

"We're not going find a way out over here…." Natalia exhaled. Though a lot of people weren't aware of this, her and her brother could get along quite well at times.

"All the windows here are stuck too." Ivan noted. All they really found was a laundry room and some others room.

"It's time to go back, brother."

"There are ten bedrooms up here." Antonio counted. Him and Lovino explored the upper floor, only to find some bedrooms.

Lovino tried not to seem too anxious about the situation they were in. All he needed was Antonio trying to comfort him or something. Even though they didn't find a way out, somebody did right?

Meanwhile, a similar occurrence happened to Vash and Lili. Downstairs they found ten bedrooms all next to each other. "Do you think we'll have to sleep in a room, big brother?"

"We'll find a way out of here." Vash assured her, though Lili seemed unsure.

"This place even has an indoor pool!" Alfred exclaimed. This would've actually been pretty cool to Alfred if they weren't locked inside.

"Why don't you try and actually help us?" Arthur asked. The Brit and Matthew were trying to check the windows, but of course _not _to their luck, all of them seemed glued to the wall.

Alfred sighed, "All of these windows won't open, what am I supposed to do? Maybe some other group found something!" He said, hope growing in his tone.

Matthew nodded. "Shouldn't we go and meet back with everyone now?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Alfred then walked out first.

Once everyone had met up again, Alfred started. "Alright, so Arthur, Mattie, and I found an indoor pool! There were windows but we couldn't open them. Did someone else find something?"

"Well Michelle and I found an outdoor garden with a small forest…" Francis began. Everyone glanced at him, having some faith.

"Except… At the end of the forest, it turned out there was a wall with trees painted on it… I-It's crazy how realistic it looked, and we couldn't even see over the wall!" Michelle finished, crushing all the hope from them.

"W-Well, did anyone else find an exit?" Alfred asked. The only response was silence.

"So… We're really trapped?! What if the damn person that _kidnapped _us does something to us?" Lovino squealed, immediately panicking. Everyone else began to panic too, before Ludwig cut in.

"Wait, there is something suspicious about the basement. There was a glowing light but when we went back downstairs to check it out, it disappeared."

"Huh? Glowing light?" Leon repeated.

"Is that so? I wonder what it could've been, we—" Arthur thought out loud before Alfred interrupted him.

"We should see then! It could be something important!" Alfred stated. What else could they really do now?

"If it'll be safe…" Mei whispered.

"It can't be too bad!" Ivan smiled, having Natalia agree with him.

"Then it's settled." Alfred went first down the basement. He flicked on the light, glancing around until something caught his eyes. Several large peach-colored posters were pinned to the wall across the room.

"Those weren't there earlier!" Kiku expressed after coming down the stairs.

Alfred walked to the posters, reading them with an astonished face.

'_5 of you are traitors. Killers. but…_ _let's play a game. You wont be able to leave this place until you find us. Figure out the 5 killers among you before you're killed. And if you catch us… we'll follow the rules. death penalty. But you have to follow the rules too._

_-TFGC'_

"What the hell?" Alfred mumbled. Who wrote this, and what did TFGC mean?

Soon everyone else flooded around the posters, expressions confused, upset, or surprised.

"Um, wouldn't people eventually notice that we're missing…?" Lili asked, holding her hands together. Vash nodded.

"Y-Yeah, we shouldn't worry!" Antonio forced a smile. Their families would of course notice them missing and knew they last went to a Halloween party.

Everyone headed back upstairs, trying to ignore the message that the posters gave out. No one would kill anybody, they're all friends! Who would even think about writing that? Some other people decided to try looking around again, in hopes of finding something.

"Kiku!" Mei called, running over to her brother. Out of all her siblings, she felt most comfortable speaking with Kiku. "Do you really think someone will really come for us? All of this seems so planned out…"

"Of course, Mei." Kiku poised. Though truthfully he felt a little unsure himself.

Mei rubbed her arm, looking down. "But why would anyone write something like that down in the basement? Those posters really weren't there when you were first down there?"

"Yes…"

Mei stayed silent. _Someone _had to write them. Were five people here actually planning something?

"Well you're probably right. Soon the police will be here!"

As soon as Mei said that, everything went dark. The power went out. Soon following after that, there was a loud scream. Then silence.

* * *

**A/N: **Another Hetalia story help—

Uh thanks for reading and reviews are appreciated. I'm also looking for a beta reader.

And incase you don't know of the human names used:

**England:** Arthur Kirkland

**America:** Alfred F. Jones

**Russia:** Ivan Braginsky

**China:** Wang Yao

**France:** Francis Bonnefoy

**Canada:** Matthew Williams

**N. Italy:** Feliciano Vargas

**S. Italy:** Lovino Vargas

**Germany:** Ludwig [Beilschmidt]

**Prussia:** Gilbert Beilschmidt

**Japan:** Kiku Honda

**Taiwan: **Xiao Mei

**Hong Kong: **Leon [Wang]

**Spain: **Antonio Fernández Carriedo

**Seychelles: **Michelle Bonnefoy

**Hungary: **Elizabeta Héderváry

**Austria: **Roderich Edelstein

**Belarus: **Natalia Arlovskaya

**Liechtenstein:** Lili Zwingli

**Switzerland: **Vash Zwingli


	2. Episode 1: Act 1

Episode 1  
Act 1

After the loud shriek that had silenced everyone, the power returned. Leaning against the wall was Lovino. His face was petrified.

"Lovi! Are you okay? What happened?" Antonio hurried to the other, his face worried for his friend. The Italian's hands were clamped together, trying not to make his body tremble.

"I-it touched me!" Lovino stuttered.

"What touched you?"

Lovino blinked a few times at Antonio in confusion. "You know… T-that damn hand that touched me! It was glowing too!"

Antonio still had a concerned expression for Lovino, but sighed. "Are you sure you weren't just seeing things? I was right over here and didn't see a thing!"

"So you're saying you don't believe me?"

Overhearing, Feliciano quickly ran over and hugged his brother. "Don't scare me like that, Lovi!"

Outbreaks of embarrassed bickers came from Lovino towards Feliciano and Antonio.

"Goodnight, Yao." Mei sighed. It was at least twelve or one AM by now. It would be hard to fall asleep, but staying up all night probably wasn't best either. People would surely rescue them soon!

"Goodnight, Lili." Vash then comforted his sibling, saying how things would soon be solved. He took a room next to Lili's upstairs.

Everyone else in the large household soon also prepared for the night, retreating into their designated rooms, a single question repeating over and over again in their heads. Just who was behind all of this?

* * *

"You do know what you did, don't you?" A voice whispered, goading Arthur to raise his voice.

Arthur glanced down, his eyes empty of any hope. "Of course I do." He croaked out. He couldn't see the person that he was speaking with, only their silhouette.

The person standing before Arthur sighed. "Though I cannot blame you. Not everything is of your fault. You could say… It's mine. Come." The figure walked towards a door that had suddenly appeared. He/she grabbed the door, slowly opening it. Loud screams were heard from the other side. Light from the door began to reveal the person before Arthur's figure. He could clearly see their legs. And then—

"Hey! Arthur!" The Brit opened his eyes to see Alfred looming over him, worried. "Apparently something happened and some people are missing! I found you here still and you were mumbling stuff! You alright?"

Arthur paused for a moment before taking a large breath. "…I'm fine. Who's missing…?" What kind of dream was that?

"Francis and Michelle!"

"What?" Arthur got out of bed. This was definitely serious. It wasn't like someone…

.

"Thanks for staying with me Francis…" Michelle let out a small yawn, having sentiments of guilt. After all she couldn't sleep and ended up sitting in the garden. The sky was like it would normally be, filled with stars and a bright moon. Though the posters about this death game scared her, she felt oddly safe outside. She should also trust her friends instead of believing those posters.

Almost a moment later Michelle saw the door slide open to reveal one of her older siblings, Francis.

He sat down next to Michelle, "You can't sleep?"

Michelle nodded a yes, her gaze going to the ground. Francis exhaled, closing his eyes for a moment. "I mean… Five of our 'friends' are murderers here!" Michelle tried her calm herself down. She slowly began to stroke her left arm.

Michelle had a lot of words and phrases to describe Francis. One was hopeless romantic. Another was understanding. Her brother could be very serious when it was time to be. "You just said five of our friends. Do you really think any of our other friends would plan something like this?" Everyone had known each other for so long… Something like that was impossible. Michelle glanced up to have her gaze into Francis'. He didn't seem overwrought unless he was hiding any signs of worry.

Francis stayed with Michelle for the rest of the night. They ended up strolling around the rest of the area and the forest, chatting among each other until morning came.

"…Seriously? They're right here." Leon was standing next to Yao. Were they quarreling a moment ago…?

"Where were you two? We were worried you know!" Yao exclaimed.

Francis explained where they were. Eventually the panicked mood that was floating around died a bit. "Breakfast!" Ivan smiled. While everyone else was searching for Michelle and Francis, Ivan and Natalia had been making kasha for breakfast. They couldn't try to escape once more on an empty stomach, now could they?

Vash huffed, still not having any luck. Any way out was still impossible. There was still no sign of anyone's family looking for them too. Surely people would be looking for them here!

"Thank you Elizabeta." Lili gave a small smile. She was wearing a towel as her dress was in the dryer. To help keep her mind off some of the events that happened, Elizabeta helped her wash out her dress. No one had brought any extra garments.

Elizabeta returned a smile. Hopefully this would be the first and last time clothing would be washed.

Mei ended up going downstairs. She didn't really know why, wouldn't she feel better being with Kiku, Leon, or Yao? The television was on. Did someone forget to turn it off? Mei stayed fixated on the television's screen. Only then did her gaze move away when something quitedisturbing happened on the screen.

"I wonder what time it is," Matthew sighed.

"Who knows?" Alfred responded. All everyone could do was assume the time. It was most likely almost dark again. Did they already go through a whole day in this wretched mansion? "You'd think someone would come looking for us by now, wouldn't you?" Arthur was listening in to their conversation but didn't add anything. Actually it kind of made Alfred realize that Arthur was a little quiet all day. Or maybe it was just him. Or maybe the whole day was just stressful and a huge toll.

Mei came upstairs, her face completely filled with horror. "No… N-no one is going to save us!" Her hands had a deathly grip on the television remote. She looked like she was going to let out a loud wail at any moment.

"Mei! What's wrong?" Yao demanded after hearing his little sister's distress.

The younger sibling didn't say a word. She held onto the remote with one hand and slowly pointed to the basement. "T-the TV…"

Yao became baffled as slowly others came to see what was going on. Mei forced herself to go downstairs. Ignoring the posters, she blinked at the screen. By the looks of it she had rewound the screen and paused it. She then clicked play.

News 101

On the screen appeared a news reporter in front of what appeared to be the ruins of a home. "Last night this mansion completely burned down. It has been reported that there was a Halloween party here, but the remains or anyone else could not be found. The fire department is looking into how this fire could have happened." In the background many police cars and fire trucks were in the area. Everyone stared at the screen with blank stares. Not a word was said.

* * *

Hey… It's me again. Am I selfish for wishing I never went to this party? So that I would never,ever have to go through what everyone is… will go through? What I go through? After today was when everything got worse. I feel terrible. Terrible about how Arthur must feel about me. How Lovino feels about me. Alfred. Matthew. Kiku. Ludwig. Gilbert. Feliciano. Me. Everyone, how everyone must feel! I don't even see the point now, 'ya know? As soon as I'm done writing this I'll forget that I wrote it. You probably forgot too. You don't remember who wrote this. But that's okay, I forgive you.

I forgive you.

* * *

A/N: Wow guys thank you much! 7 reviews and 13 follows on the first chapter! I'm sorry for updating so late! I've actually had time to write, I just kept getting distracted by videos and stuff every time I got on the computer to type ^^" (tips on how *not* to do that are welcomed haha) Once again reviews are welcome and thanks for all the beta offers! This chapter was shorter than the first one but I wonder what could possibly happen next chapter~


	3. Episode 1: Act 2

**Episode 1  
**Act 2

Flashing lights of red and blue floated into the eyes of everyone staring at the screen. Right where they were standing had burned down. Was that really the answer to why no one has rescued them? Just thinking about this made Feliciano tear up. Ludwig took a deep breath, "We don't know if this is true." After all, they are in the _same house _that was just shown on the television.

Eventually the news scene moved on to the weather. The TV flashed back to images of what was apparently happening outside. "Well let's check outside and see if this is true." Ivan stated with a slight smile.

Everyone's eyes were revisited with the same flashes of red and blue. Just outside of the windows was yellow fire tape surrounding the house, fire trucks, and police cars. It looked exactly like the scene on the news except the house was obviously there. "Hey!" Natalia shouted and began to knock one of the windows. It was as if no one outside noticed they were there.

Vash pounded his hand against the wall multiple times, trying to create any sort of sound for the outside. Everyone tried screaming for help, only for a hassled response of not being noticed.

"Grandpa!" Feliciano pointed out, looking as if he was going to bawl. Lovino, also seeing him, tried waving. "We're right here!" Ivan and Natalia also saw Katyusha and other respected family members behind the fire line.

"They truly can't see or hear us." Kiku aired, now seeming a bit pale. Once again everyone had found themselves staring at each other, not knowing what to do.

.

Leon woke up from bed, not having that much sleep. Even he had wondered how everyone was able to go to bed. _Or maybe try. _

"Dammit!" Gilbert cursed. He glanced over to Antonio who shook his head. The news station returned with a woman speaking into a microphone. Every time the windows were looked out again, the aspect was the same. This time Antonio and Gilbert saw the news. The only problem was that they couldn't hear anything she was saying. Even if the news reporter was distanced off, it didn't even look like her mouth was moving.

"Are you alright?" Elizabeta queried Roderich. Of course everyone seemed at least a little dull about the situation, but Roderich appeared really ill.

Roderich nodded. "Of course I am."

Elizabeta gave Roderich a worried nod back. She would just have to keep an eye on him.

"Thank you for helping Leon!" Mei gave her brother a smile soon after her sitting down. To help give Yao a break she wanted to cook breakfast. Leon aided her even if it was just pancakes and eggs. Leon gave her a quick 'your welcome' and sat down. Breakfast was well, awkward. Everyone ate in silence with an occasional question (such as if it still looked the same outside or what were they going to do). Natalia and Ivan didn't even come to eat. They most likely had wandered off. They've done it before after all.

_Natalia and Ivan were here for breakfast before!_ Lili was concerned as Natalia was her friend and her brother seemed nice. Lili excused herself to use the restroom. Hopefully she would see them.

_Sniff. _Lili never saw them but as she headed back to the kitchen she heard something. Was it coming from the basement? It was pitch black down the stairs but Lili could definitely confirm that someone was down there.

"Hello?" Lili called down. _Sniff._

It sounded like they were crying. Lili slowly went downstairs. _Step. Sniff. Step. Sniff._

She felt for the light switch on the wall once she was downstairs. When she flicked the lights on Lili's arms dropped to her side and she gasped.

"Did you go outside _again?_" Arthur questioned Francis.

"Michelle and I just talk for a bit and then go inside. Is there something wrong with that?" Francis had retorted.

"Well if you want to make people worry again, no!"

"Now they'll know where we'll be!"

"Vash… VASH!" What seemed like was a new argument about to start was abruptly cut off by the scared shouting of Lili.

"What is it, Lili?" Vash came running down the stairs only to have his eyes widen in horror.

Right in front of the two was Natalia. She was huddling in front of something trying to keep the view blocked from them. Her shoulders were stained with blood. Underneath her was a trail of blood leading to the back of the basement.

"Ivan get up, now. Please!" Natalia begged. She slumped down to her bottom making everything much more clear.

"This!" Vash gasped. In front of Natalia lay Ivan's body. Not wanting his sister to witness this any longer, Vash told Lili to stay upstairs as he grabbed everyone else.

Natalia was whispering under her breath as more people came downstairs alarmed. Ivan hasn't moved. It was quite obvious what had happened to Ivan but Natalia tried to convince herself otherwise. "Idiots, Ivan will get up and—"

Though their relationship was rocky, Alfred cut off Natalia. "…H-he's not getting up."

Natalia clamped her hands and turned her head away.

"Does that mean one of us actually _killed _him?" Gilbert wondered aloud. Gilbert definitely wasn't too fond towards Ivan, as they never got along. That didn't mean he didn't feel bad about this.

"No one would even think about killing!" Mei wailed covering her face. Natalia didn't utter a word.

_Flip._ It almost sounded like there was a giant textbook behind them with the pages being turned through.

"The posters changed!" Matthew observed.

'_One of us finally killed someone. yes someone standing right in here is Ivan Braginsky's murderer. it was getting boring without any deaths, wasn't it? Who killed him? how? hopefully you'll find out! if not that same person will continue to kill until theyre found out. if someone innocent is all agreed by everyone to be the murderer, theyll get the death penalty despite being completely innocent. Isn't that how it always works in real life?'_

The writing on the posters looked rushed.

"Who did it? Which one of you fucking killed Ivan!" Natalia demanded suddenly out of her silence. No one said anything.

Arthur sighed knowing that it wouldn't be that easy for the culprit to just admit that they murdered Ivan. "We're going to have to do what the posters said. We need to find out how Ivan died; we have to investigate."

.

"I don't think we'll find anything here." Roderich huffed. Him and Elizabeta were checking the music room.

"Wait, come here Roderich!" Elizabeta was checking the closet in the back. All of the sudden there were long wooden boards cramped to the side.

"It'll be okay Mei! We-we'll figure this out soon." Michelle rubbed her arm.

"I can't believe how quickly we had to move on. This isn't fair!" Mei also didn't want her other siblings (like Kiku) to be hurt! She _knew _it wasn't one of them!

_My brother is too much of crybaby to even touch Ivan! And Antonio—_

"Lovino! Let's check the garden!" Antonio suggested cutting Lovino from his thoughts. Lovino let out a startled shriek as Antonio touched his shoulder.

Though Vash didn't want Lili to be scared about what had happened, he knew that his adopted sibling wasn't a baby and was rather mature. Multiple people had examined Ivan's body including Vash as Lili had watched. Natalia stayed by her brother's side but did allow people to examine him as long as his killer would be found. Under Ivan's body was a large pool of blood with a trail leading out of it. Lili sadly frowned seeing the trail led to a wall with a bigger blood splat on the wall. In the trail there was a chip of wood. Blood was still oozing from Ivan's head and throat. In a corner of the basement there was some wood with blood on top of it.

"Natalia may I ask something? Do you know anything that could have happened last night?"

The older teen breathed in. "I saw Ivan walking with Gilbert. I tried following him but ran into Matthew."

"Then what?"

Natalia didn't respond.

"Where should we look first?" Kiku asked, receiving a shrug from a sad-looking Feliciano. He just felt bad for Ivan and Natalia despite being terrified of Ivan. He couldn't imagine losing his brother!

"Let's try looking around." Ludwig stated. The trio searched through different areas until they were in the laundry room. On top of the washer was a towel. Dark crimson red could be seen on the linen. Feliciano flinched at the sight of the towel. "Stay here, Feliciano." Ludwig enunciated, motioning Kiku to follow him.

Kiku checked inside the washing machine while Ludwig checked the laundry basket. Inside were bloody gloves and more towels.

"Alright guys. What did you find?" Alfred awkwardly questioned once everyone had regrouped.

"Elizabeta and I found some wooden boards in the music closet that we don't think were there before." Roderich explained their discovery.

"Ah, and wasn't there a wooden board downstairs?" Francis spoke up.

"There was." Vash nodded.

"We also found some towels and gloves with _blood _on them in the laundry room." Kiku explained.

Roderich thought for a moment, "Perhaps Ivan was hit on the head? Though I have no clue on what the towels or gloves could have been used on."

"Maybe they used it so they wouldn't get blood on them?" Michelle guessed.

_But how? _Matthew thought who hasn't spoken that much.

"First we should figure out who killed him and then force them to explain how they killed Ivan!" Natalia suddenly hissed. "Right Gilbert?"

"…Wait what?" Gilbert blinked. He could totally confirm that he didn't do anything to Ivan, like he could!

"You were the last person that Ivan was with, meaning you have something to do with his death!"

"You were with Ivan last night?" Ludwig asked his brother.

"Well yeah. But for just a minute! He asked me if I sent him some note! I had no idea what he was talking about though. I was just up for moment to use the bathroom!" The elder sibling defended himself.

"W-we don't know if he's telling the truth!" Lovino exclaimed. "He could be making all this shit up!"

"Why would I make that up?" Gilbert remarked.

"Didn't you also see Matthew, Natalia?" Lili kindly asked.

"I just bumped into him. That was all." Natalia answered her question.

Matthew slowly raised his hand, hoping he would snatch everyone's attention. "Um, actually I found this and I was hoping to give it back but then I couldn't find him," Matthew pulled a small slip of paper from his pocket.

'_They're already in danger. Come to the'_

The rest of the note was torn off. "The back of it has Ivan's name on it and I was worried about what it said. I wanted to ask Ivan but I lost him. Sorry for not saying earlier!"

"So someone must have sent him a note to the basement! And then we know what happens afterwards, aru." Yao closed his eyes for a moment for further thinking.

"And like, why did they drag him? It's pretty obvious he was moved after being killed." Leon added in.

"We still haven't figured out anything about the towels, gloves, and goggles too." Antonio sighed.

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, _goggles?_"

"Yeah, we found goggles out in the garden next to the door. There was uh, blood on them." Antonio responded in an unpleasant tone.

Towels, a pair of gloves, and goggles. What were they used for exactly?

"Don't Francis and Michelle go in the garden every night?" Vash asked.

"Yeah! W-what if it's one of _them?_" Lovino accused, being paranoid.

Michelle frantically shook her head. "None of us killed anyone!" Francis tried vindicating.

"Just saying you didn't kill anyone is hard to believe!" Natalia snapped.

"Fighting isn't going to get us anywhere right now guys." Arthur sighed.

Leon was sure the culprit basically wrapped themselves in the towels and put on the gloves and goggles. Once they were in the basement with Ivan, _bang! _They hit Ivan with the wooden board down there and knocked him dead. Why wouldn't anyone else think this through like he did?

Arthur felt uneasy. He could have already spoken with the murderer without even knowing it. But it was still crazy to think that someone discussing what could have happened this moment was the killer. Someone was pretending to concerned about what was going on. Someone was pretending to be innocent. Someone here right among him was a murderer.

* * *

**A/N: **Woo chapter 3! I'm happy I updated a lot quicker compared to chapter 2! I'm also going to try to use this fic for NaNoWriMo. Though I don't think I'll update enough words in time, my main goal is to just update this story a lot more faster. Thank you for the reviews once again guys! I love some of the tips I got too, you all rock. Also credit to Katsuki Tomoyo for beta-ing my story! Who do you guys think the culprit is? I guess until then!


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